Page 28 - 25 God's Law Immutable

of the beast, the religious power must so

control the civil government that the

authority of the state will also be employed

by the church to accomplish her own ends.

Whenever the church has obtained secular

power, she has employed it to punish dissent

from her doctrines. Protestant churches that

have followed in the steps of Rome by

forming alliance with worldly powers have

manifested a similar desire to restrict liberty

of conscience. An example of this is given in

the long-continued persecution of dissenters

by the Church of England. During the

sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,

thousands of nonconformist ministers were

forced to flee from their churches, and many,

both of pastors and people, were subjected to

fine, imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom.